REFLECT
Leaders Make Meaning: The So-What Beyond Purpose, Direction, and Motivation
by Tom Montano “Wow, so are you guys actually Soldiers?!” The crowds at Mount Vernon asked me this over a dozen times that winter Saturday after our colonial battlefield tactical demonstration. I was wearing my Revolutionary War era blue jacket and...
Thinking of Yourself as Phil Jackson: Team Building Reflections from Command
by Oren Rosen Building your team is important work. And managing that team once assembled is what determines if the team will perform at championship caliber. As a commander, you inherit most of your team—but that does not mean the roster is...
Thinking in Pixels: Developing Leadership Skills from Video Games
by Jakob Hutter Since the early days of ‘Pong’ and ‘Space Invaders’, the realm of pixels has more than just provided entertainment. Where every action has consequences and challenges lurk at every corner, a journey to explore and conquer provides...
Pay It Forward: Mid-Career Moolah for Continued Service
by Sara Roger Picture this: it’s the summer of 2025, and you just finished company command. As you pack up your office, you reflect on the last 18 months: the late-night calls and emails, the last-minute taskings, the oversaturation of...
The Three C’s of Leader Development Relationships
by Tom Dull Leaders in the U.S. Army profession must deliberately prioritize leader development relationships in our units and organizations. Leader development relationships enable our subordinate leaders to maximize their personal and...
Looking Down Under and Within: Three Recommendations to Address the Recruiting Crisis
by Aaron Pucetas Over the past couple years, the Army has been unable to meet its recruiting goals. In a highly competitive labor market with record low unemployment rates, some argue that the Army must immediately improve its compensation package...
Mentorship: Finding Meaning Beneath The Surface
by James Duncan It’s Monday, and the scene is an all-too familiar one. After battalion formation, the Soldiers shuffle over to the truck line. After a few minutes recapping Sunday night football and griping about the cold from the morning’s run,...
Communicate Your Staff Estimates in the Language of Risk
by Tom Gaines and Micah Stedman “Gentlemen, we have run out of money; now we have got to think.” – Winston Churchill Somewhere out there is the perfect unit. The commander’s intent is perfectly understood by every member of this...
Building Mutual Trust: Candor, Clarity, and Curiosity
by Ryan Cornell-d’Echert In our organizations, how comfortable are people admitting they do not know? How often do we respond with, “Sir, I don’t have that information. I’ll take it as a due-out,” or “Ma’am, we should have thought of that. We’ll...
A Brittle Force: Grappling with Surging Military Suicides
by Greg Wall and Jacob Mays As we near the end of the calendar year, it seems that 2023 is likely to go down as the deadliest year in history for self-directed violence in the US military. In 2022 the DoD reported the highest Q1 suicide rate since...
USMA Broadening: Tactical Officer
Editor’s Note: This post is part of the FTGN Army Broadening Series that we are running from March 15-30, 2021. Each day, we will publish new insights into the Army’s various broadening assignments, starting March 15th, 2021 with an...
Inspector General: A Prime Broadening Experience
Editor’s Note: This post is part of the FTGN Army Broadening Series that we are running from March 15-30, 2021. Each day, we will publish new insights into the Army’s various broadening assignments, starting March 15th, 2021 with an...
Duty, Honor, Country: Broadening Opportunities at the U.S. Military Academy
Editor’s Note: This post is part of the FTGN Army Broadening Series that we are running from March 15-30, 2021. Each day, we will publish new insights into the Army’s various broadening assignments, starting March 15th, 2021 with an...
Bravo Section on Patrol
Editorial note – This blog post is part of our Scribbles series. If interested in submitting creative content, view our guidelines here or contact Cassie Crosby at cassie@fromthegreennotebook.com. By Charles Burt SFC (Retired) Charles Burt...
Congressional Fellowship: Broadening at the Intersection of the Army and Congress
By Jeremy Tillman The Army Congressional Fellowship is a unique opportunity to gain strategic perspective and hone your understanding of legislative affairs. Unfortunately, the perception that broadening assignments are negative propagate in small...
Educate, Train, Inspire: West Point Broadening Opportunities
Editor’s Note: This post is part of the FTGN Army Broadening Series that we are running from March 15-30, 2021. Each day, we will publish new insights into the Army’s various broadening assignments, starting March 15th, 2021 with an...
The Responsibility of Preparedness: Choosing Broadening Assignments That Will Make You a Better Officer
Editor’s Note: This post is part of the FTGN Army Broadening Series that we are running from March 15-30, 2021. Each day, we will publish new insights into the Army’s various broadening assignments, starting March 15th, 2021 with an...
AIM 2.0: Your One-Stop Shop for Talent Management
Editor’s Note: This post is part of the FTGN Army Broadening Series that we are running from March 15-30, 2021. Each day, we will publish new insights into the Army’s various broadening assignments, starting March 15th, 2021 with an...
Three Principles of Distinguished Leadership
By Allison Miller While the mission of defining “good” leadership will indefinitely entertain reasonable minds, I wish to highlight three rather unconventional principles drawn from my observations and experience of various leadership styles and...
The Attributes of Effective Mentorship
By Jeroen Verhaeghe One of the key responsibilities of a leader in any military organization is the development of the next generation of leaders[i]. This responsibility is crucial because the military grows its leaders from within rather than...
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Leading Large Organizations: Lessons from a Regimental CSM
By CSM Michael S. Burke Cue Morgan Freeman Narrator voice: “This is the best time of your life, Mike, relish in every single moment of it.” Of course I’m going to be biased but I’m proud to admit that I’ve never had so much fun in my life or had...
Breaking the Mold: Why Cadet Command Needs Swift Change
The views represented herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the DoD or its components. By Cassie Crosby Due to selection bias for combat-arms noncommissioned officers, women are functionally prohibited from...
The Premortem Exercise: Visualizing Catastrophic Failure (and Success)
By Don Gomez The after-action review (AAR) is one of the simplest tools we use in the Army to learn and grow as an organization. Whether a squad gathered in the dark immediately after a patrol, giving their quick “3 ups and 3 downs” or a highly...
Hands Belong in Pockets!
By CSM Michael S. Burke I recently watched an NCO escorting a Soldier through the clearing process. I watched him help organize paperwork and ensure it was in order as he went to each station. He was talking to him in a calm manner and even...
Five Fundamentals to Anchor Your Organization
by Sean Finnan The comparisons between sports and leadership are countless. There are so many parallels that apply to both: know your role, cheer on your teammates, be coachable, sacrifice individual glory for the betterment of the team,...
How We Prepared Our Brigade to Fight at JRTC: An Interview with Bastogne 6
Last month, I had the chance to sit down with COL Robert Born, the commander of Bastogne Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division and talk about his experience as a brigade commander during his recent Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) rotation....
Plan like a Stoic: Prepare for Disruption
By Rick Chersicla Stoicism has become a popular topic for military audiences in recent years, and for good reason. Even on this website, numerous articles and interviews have explained why it is important to think like a Roman emperor, and...
30 Under 30 Leader Developers
Special Announcement for Army Cadets and Officers The 2010 Center for Army Leadership Annual Survey of Army Leadership (CASAL) found that Army leaders lack skills in developing subordinate leaders. Specifically, it found that compared to ILE...
The Hidden Benefit of the Army’s New Commander Assessment Program
By Joe Byerly Last week I traveled to Fort Knox to attend the Battalion Commander Assessment Program (BCAP). Initially, I thought of BCAP as merely an assessment of my leadership preparedness for battalion command. And while that is certainly the...
Make Your LPDs Worth Your Leaders’ Time.
By: CSM Mike Burke and CSM Marcus Brister “Next week, we will have an LPD on NCOERs…” said the command sergeant major, receiving a combination of eye rolls and long exhales during the training meeting. True to form, the following week, an...
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